Wednesday, March 22, 2006

No Direction

Everyone has had these days. Yesterday I wandered. I WANTED, no, NEEDED, to create something from all the beautiful pictures I have from Ireland, and nothing I did made me happy. I needed to listen to my friend Joanne who said JUST RELAX, but the PRESSURE I said to myself...and then I said WHAT PRESSURE????, no deadlines, no one breathing down my neck to produce, and then this morning walking at 5AM, I realized where IT was coming from. RIGHT HERE. THIS BLOG. I want to hold up my end of the bargain to make it artsy and interesting for all those faithful readers and fellow art quilters. And you'd think after a wonderful day with my Frayed Edges friends I'd have good stuff to draw from, and I do somewhere. It's just not floating to the top yet.

Back to the problem: I want to do a piece incorporating a picture like Mary Ellen Kranz does (she makes it look so easy). But in studying her book "Blending Photos with Fabric" an important part of her work has to do with traditional designs around her main photos. Not me, anymore. No patience. The less of a pattern the better. And it's not like I've never done anything like it before. This is something I did from a photo of poppies a while ago:



and I think it came out alright.











So, this is what I have so far:



Maybe I need to use a different picture, too dull, maybe a different layout, maybe different fabric. Maybe I need to LET IT BE while I spend the day at work and then take a closer look later. I don't know what I want...yes, I do. I want spring.







Let me leave you with this photo of the delicious lunch we had at our Frayed Edges meeting the other day:






and another one from our trip, Dun Aengus on Inish Mor, Aran Island. Many people have crept to the edge to check out the 250 foot drop below. This is our family portrait. (showing our best side?, nah!)



P.S. This post is about a day late because I've been pulling my hair out trying to upload photos. I could get to the point of the dancing circle and then I'd get a white screen with no "done" and no photo in post. The only thing that seemed to work was by choosing a different layout (right, center, left) each time so thats why this is not as NEAT as I'd like, but it's done!

2 comments:

Deborah Boschert said...

Oh yes, the poppies are just stupendous. And the quilting shows up so wonderfully in this picture. The lunch looks delish -- of course. I think the landscape is coming along. It's going to be great. But it sounds like you need a little break. It was 35 here this morning. Does that make you feel better?

Joanne S said...

When I spent that unforgettable day with the quilters of Gee's Bend, I remember a conversation with Mary Lee Bendolph when several of us lamented that our work was overplanned and lacked the joy that spilled from the GB quilts. She laughed and said something like "Jus' pick a pretty piece of fabric and find another one that looks good with it and sew 'em together. Keep doin' that until it's the size you want and you'll have a nice quilt!"

Nice quote from Be*Dazzled.